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| In Cold Blood | 
 enlarge | Author: Truman Capote
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $2.17
You Save: $12.78 (85%)
New (74) Used (244) Collectible (9) from $2.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  429 reviews
Sales Rank: 2230
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0679745580
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.15230978144
EAN: 9780679745587
ASIN: 0679745580
Publication Date: February 1, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: We ship Monday - Friday and typically process orders on the next business day. We list the majority of our books in "Good" condition. If this book had any major flaws, it would be listed in "Acceptable" condition. Easy returns if you are unhappy with the book. Proceeds benefit non-profit Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties. Our mission is to create solutions to poverty through the businesses we operate. Your purchase creates jobs and transforms lives. Thank you.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Genius of the genre April 2, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Whenever I think back on my first reading of this book, my memory seems to splinter. As a crime reporter, I remember it as an exquisitely written account of a nasty killing. As a writer and reader, I recall the story line as though I'd watched it on a movie screen. That's the power of Capote's visual style and smooth narrative voice. Like tens of thousands of others, I try to mimic his precisioned style when writing in-depth stories about true crime. Like tens of thousands of others, I can't quite match it. Capote stands alone as the genius of this genre.
 Capote's Classic June 21, 2003
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Mr. Capote did us a great service in probing every facet of the tragic murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. But for his careful research and lucid prose, the courage of the Clutters, and the savagery of their murder, made all the more tragic by the quality of the family's character, might well have gone unrecognized. Although our era scarcely needs another shocking crime about which to read, In Cold Blood is worth re-visiting. At one level, Capote's book reminds us just how much has changed in a relatively short span of time. It is almost impossible in today's world to imagine reporters waiting anxiously in Holcomb for the return by car of the accused killers; now, even cities of modest size would have dispatched any number of helicopters to hover over the vehicles in transit and the footage would be delivered to our living rooms, and we would find ourselves addicted to the sound of the copters and the chatter of reporters. At another level, the book shows how little has changed. The murder of the Clutters is a modern story, a sad precursor to our own violent times. Capote knew that Holcomb, Kansas was a tale of innocence lost after the passing of the Clutter family. Now we know it was not just Holcomb's loss.
 I can't be the only one that didn't like this book... January 22, 2006
9 out of 49 found this review helpful
I had heard so much about this book that I had been wanting to read it for years. Somehow it always escaped me but when I found it sitting at a used book store I decided to quench my curiosity about it.
I know it's a true story and that's what's supposed to make it so great but as terrible as it sounds I think this story should have been left to wilt in the memories of the people of Holcomb Kansas. There was nothing at all interesting about this book. The people involved were not interesting, the random act of violence itself was not interesting, and the setting was enough to drive anyone bonkers. One more description of a flowing wheat (or was it corn?) field and I'd have permanent twitches.
The only interesting thing in this entire book was a little poem quoted in it by one of the killers. That's IT. I couldn't have been more thoroughly disappointed with a classic of literature but I did learn one thing... If I were a teenage girl living in 1950's Kansas I would have surely either died of boredom or killed myself for something to do. There's nothing less appetizing then basing your teenage life on teaching other children how to cook pies. That was indeed how uninteresting that character was...
Stands Alone and Tall in an Ocean of books May 8, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
What a dazzling spectacle, what a saddening account, what a grand writing. Ironically, this book was gifted to me by a penpal in New York but it kept biting dust somewhere amidst other books for 5 years before I finally picked it up and read it to give it 5 star rating! It was to be one of my all time favourites!
This is not only an amazing, chilling, journalistic account of a true life crime but also a study in criminology, dark/ corrupt human mind, small-town society in chaos, human fortitude in profound tragedy. Moreover, it even goes into the issues of forgiveness, repentence, capital punishment.
This book truly shook me, churned my mind, made me gasp for breath and think DEEP. I was very angry and sad. My personal verdict: I hardly feel any pity or compassion for the criminals.
But maybe I am a bit sorry for Perry Smith because of his horrible past, totally dysfunctional family, physical handicap, fragile and over sentimental disposition. Or do I feel so because Capote painted a sorry picture of Perry Smith, kind of humanized him as a pitiable, short, sentimental, shy man of mixed racial origins (Caucasian father, Native Indian mother) who often suffers great physical and mental pain because of his handicap and inferiority complex ?
Capote seems to suggest (based on his interviews with the criminals) that Perry was almost the passive and circumstantial partaker in the crime while his accomplice was the mastermind. I think not. I believe both were equally responsible and evil.
There also runs in the book Capote's subtle Democratic/ Liberal political undertone, especially in the last parts of the book, regarding the issue of capital punishment. But it's Capote's grand show and he is allowed to narrate it from his heart. I don't think Capote can be accused of anything other than blowing our minds by giving us a masterpiece, a classic, a superbly written account of a real life tragedy.
A true story of a murder February 24, 2003
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Author Truman Capote wanted to write a book by applying "techniques of fiction to a fact-based story" and the result is arguably Truman Capote's most famous work, In Cold Blood. The book is the fascinating account of an actual murder of an innocent family in southwestern Kansas.Four members of the unsuspecting Clutter family were methodically and viciously murdered on their farm in mid November back in 1959. The crime was a mystery as no one had seen the murderers nor could a motive be discovered. Eventually two men are found to most likely be involved. The story is not a who-dun-it but rather an analysis of a crime and the mystery as to why two men would drive over 400 miles to kill four people who they did not know. It is this last point that provides the greater context of the story. Capote was attempting to explore the criminal mind and find some psychological motivation for criminal behavior. In Cold Blood is considered an American classic and it rightfully deserves that accolade. It was one of the first books of its kind - a novel of a true incident - and it is still one of the best books of any genre. Capote's style is leisurely, straightforward and informative and yet somehow provides the reader with enormous tension at all the right places. Furthermore, while reading the book I just couldn't help but keep thinking that this is a true story, which makes the book more horrifying.
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